How to DIY Phantom Canyon Logo
Picture 1. Intel® NUC 11 Enthusiast Kit - NUC11PHKi7C with original Intel® Skull logo
The Phantom Canyon NUC11PHKi7 comes with a customizable RGB Backlit logo area. This area uses a technology referred to as “light guide film” to illuminate the transparent logo which then uses a negative approach to cover the areas you do not want lit.
By default, the NUC Kit comes with 5 extra Logo plate transparencies that are made of an acrylic plastic. When you remove your original Intel® Skull logo you can see that the transparencies are the same size and are intended to be replaceable into the same location. The Acrylic transparencies are 100mm x 100mm in XY and have a Z-height of 1mm.
Picture 2. Location of the logo plate under the top lid of NUC11PHKi7C
Proposed process using a Silhouette Vinyl cutter.
What you may need to create a replacement or new logo plate.
1. A logo or artwork file that is vectorized as graphics. Typically, these are a DXF file or something similar.
a. You can create a DXF file using Adobe Illustrator or with more steps using GIMP and then converting the file into a DXF.
Picture 3. Converting the logo file into the DXF format
2. A Vinyl cutter with a software program to use for moving the vector art into the printing space limitations.
a. The cutter referenced in the guide is the Silhouette Cameo 4.
Picture 4. Silhouette Cameo 4 printing
b. The Cameo 4 includes access to the Silhouette Studio® plotting/cutting software.
3. Opaque Vinyl material.
a. The recommendation is to use something that is fully opaque if you are looking for crisp/clean lines.
Picture 5. The example of a vinyl, used in the guide
b. You can use tinted colors if you would like a multi-color result.
4. Vinyl print transfer material.
a. This is due to the nature of the cut coming out inverted on first stick and then the
transfer material is applied to the logo plate for the original shape.
Picture 6. Transferring of the imago to the logo plate.
5. A sharp task knife (commonly called X-ACTO®).
Picture 7. Using the knife for support
a. Set of tweezers for precision placement.
Picture 8. The knife and the tweezers used in the guide
While this won’t be a guide on how to create the DXF file as there are plenty of those out there; this will present a few tips on getting the best transfer and experience.
• If using the Silhouette Studio application, you can create a square of 100mm x 100mm and then place your DXF image into the center of the square. If your image has significant details on the edges it may be advised to give yourself around 1.5-2mm of space inside the 100mm x100mm square so there are no image bleeds on the edges as a result.
• If using a “chalkboard” type print vinyl I recommend a lot of patience with the transfer sheet or potentially use packaging tape as your transfer medium as transfer sheets are not sticky enough to counter the vinyl itself.
• While still learning how to use the silhouette you may want to print multiple copies to make sure you get a good one at the onset.